leeslover Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 The article is funny, but click on the link to see the comments :laught16: Send in the clowns - it's another episode in the sad saga of Manchester City Long-suffering fans of Manchester City (are there any other kind?) like to bolster their spirits by croaking Blue Moon – or those two lines of the song they can remember. By Michael Henderson Last Updated: 11:01AM GMT 22 Jan 2009 Wayne Bridge and Garry Cook - Send in the clowns - it's another episode in the sad saga of Manchester City Under fire: Manchester City executive chairman Garry Cook (right) has come in for some criticism over his handling of the potential Kaka transfer to Eastlands Photo: AP But it is another Rodgers and Hart classic that defines the club’s character: Glad to be Unhappy. "Look at yourself", goes Lorenz Hart’s introductory verse. "If you had a sense of humour, you would laugh to beat the band". They might not be chortling in Miles Platting right now but everywhere else people are roaring. At a time of global uncertainty you can always rely on 'Cit-eh’ to don red noses in the noble cause of cheering us all up, and they have not disappointed. Being a laughing-stock in England was never enough for a club of such overwhelming ambition. Now, after a week of buffoonery unparalleled in the history of football, they have finally achieved the international recognition they craved for so long. Manchester’s little-regarded other team is now a laughing-stock throughout the world! Take a bow, Garry Cook, but please, keep that blessed cap and those precious bells, for they suit you so well. Goodness gracious, has there ever been so preposterous a figure in English football? Michael Knighton, possibly, but the portly ball-juggler never actually got his mitts on the Reds. Cook, by contrast, has anointed himself as a modern-day Diaghilev, chief impresario at the Theatre of Base Comedy, as Stuart Hall once dubbed it, and nobody can say he has let the audience down. Comedians to the world! Even the great Morecambe and Wise couldn’t pull off that trick. Yet, by reducing Mark Hughes, a manager of some promise, to the rank of errand boy, endorsing a transfer policy that values Craig Bellamy at a cool 14 million smackers, and now, after the humiliation of Milan, hurling insults at one of the world’s grandest clubs, the former sportswear salesman has won the gratitude of millions. One can just about forgive him for talking of 'the City project’, and even something called 'the broader community’. These salespeople imbibe such claptrap with their mother’s milk and besides, not all the fans seem to care one way or t’other. The City supporters were not greatly bothered by Thaksin Shinawatra’s millions and now that billions are sloshing their way from the oilfields of Abu Dhabi, they think that’s quite a wheeze, too. But when the mouthpiece of a club synonymous with high-spending failure accuses Milan of lacking 'sophistication’, it is surely time to start counting the spoons. To demean the club you represent so shamelessly in public does not merely insult Milan; it insults the game itself. Even a candy-coated charmer like Cook must know he will never again be taken seriously by anybody in the game. The mood may be changing because it is clear that a growing number of City fans are deeply ashamed of their club’s conduct. It is also clear that the Land of Plenty that Cook claims to see is so far away that you need a visa to get there, and not many leading players are prepared to have their passports stamped. Kaka did the football world a huge favour when he knocked back Cook and his associates. It is now time for Mark Hughes to do the game another good turn. If he stays at Eastlands Hughes will be forced to walk the plank sooner rather than later, so he may as well leave now, on his own terms. Hughes is an intelligent man who should, in time, become a successful manager, but he will never be allowed to manage independently at a club like Manchester City. Were he to walk out now nobody would hold a thing against him. It is the best course, and he shouldn’t think twice about it. Cook, meanwhile, can get on writing his memoirs, which are provisionally titled Golfing with Thaksin. He can also get on with the delightful business of recruiting some more 'humanitarians’ for the 'project’. That, apparently, was the thing about Kaka, not his ball skills. On Wednesday night it was reported that City were preparing to make an eight-figure offer for Archbishop Desmond Tutu. 'The dynamics’, said a club spokesman, 'feel right’. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnny punkster Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 suddenly a bit sensitive arn't they!!!!!! "roll up roll up! the circus is in town!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 City are the new Chelsea. I managed to just catch a bit of Cooks tirade outside Eastlands the other day "They bottled it!" he said. What a twerp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 Can you hear it? Its the sound of the establishment beginning to crumble... Oh for God's sake, this poster is seriously trying to get a staff job with the Telegraph... Allowing this idiot [the author] to represent your publication in such a manner is an insult to the intelligence of Manchester City supporters in particular. Well, if you can find their intelligence - I say insult away...City are there for the taking now - and their so-called fans don't' like it up 'em... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 One last one... Bang on the money with this article pal. You seem to have upset the bitter 1/3 of Stockport and surrounding suburbia judging by the responses.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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